Elizabeth Montgomery

Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery (April 15, 1933 – May 18, 1995)[1] was an American film, stage, and television actress whose career spanned five decades. She is best remembered for her leading role as Samantha Stephens on the television series Bewitched.

Throughout her career, Montgomery was involved in various forms of political activism and charitable work. She has been cited as one of the earliest celebrities to support gay rights and advocate for AIDS patients, volunteering with the AIDS Project Los Angeles and amfAR at the height of the AIDS epidemic.[2]

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Montgomery was born on April 15, 1933, in Los Angeles, California, to Broadway actress Elizabeth Daniel Bryan (née Allen; 1904 – 1992) and film starRobert Montgomery (1904–1981). Montgomery's mother was a native of Kentucky and her father was from New York. She had an elder sister, Martha Bryan Montgomery (named after her aunt Martha-Bryan Allen), who died as an infant, and a younger brother, Robert Montgomery Jr. (1936–2000).[3] Montgomery was of Irish and Scottish descent. Her great-grandfather, Archibald Montgomery, was born in Belfast and emigrated to the United States in 1849. Genealogical research conducted after Montgomery's death revealed that Montgomery and accused 19th-century murderer Lizzie Borden were sixth cousins once removed, both descending from 17th-century Massachusetts resident John Luther. Montgomery had played Borden, not knowing of their real-life relationship.[3]

Montgomery made her television debut in her father's series Robert Montgomery Presents and later appeared on occasion as a member of his "summer stock" company of performers. In October 1953, Montgomery made her Broadway debut, starring in Late Love,[6] for which she won a Theater World Award for her performance.[5] She then made her film debut in Otto Preminger's The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955). Montgomery returned to Broadway in 1956, appearing in The Loud Red Patrick.[6]

In the ABC situation comedyBewitched, Montgomery played the central role of lovable witch Samantha Stephens, with Dick York (and later with Dick Sargent) as her husband. Starting in the second season of the series, she also played the role of Samantha's mischievous cousin, Serena, under the pseudonym Pandora Spocks (a pun on Pandora's Box).

Bewitched became a ratings success (it was, at the time, the highest-rated series ever for the network).[10] The series aired for eight seasons, from 1964 to 1972, and despite low ratings late in the series run, it was renewed for a ninth season to run from 1972 to 1973. However, Montgomery's marriage to Bewitched director William Asher was in trouble and the couple had separated by the end of the eighth season.

This caused severe friction in their professional relationship and ended any possibility of another season. As a consolation to ABC, Montgomery and Asher (under their company name Ashmont, which produced Bewitched) offered a half-hour sitcom, The Paul Lynde Show, to the network for the 1972–1973 season. Lynde's series lasted only one year.

The show added to the increasing popularity of the name Samantha. While its use was relatively rare until 1958, it has remained consistently popular since 1965 due chiefly to Montgomery's character.[11]

Montgomery returned to Samantha-like twitching of her nose and on-screen magic in a series of Japanese television commercials (1980–83) for "Mother" chocolate biscuits and cookies by confectionery conglomerate Lotte Corp. These Japanese commercials provided a substantial salary for Montgomery while she remained out of sight of non-Japanese fans and the Hollywood industry.

In the United States, Montgomery spent much of her later career pursuing dramatic roles that took her as far away from the good-natured Samantha as possible. Among her later roles were performances that brought her Emmy Award nominations: a rape victim in A Case of Rape (1974), and the accused (but later acquitted) murderer Lizzie Borden in William Bast's The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975). Rhonda McClure, the genealogist who documented the Montgomery–Borden connection after Montgomery's death which revealed that Montgomery was Borden's distant cousin, said "I wonder how Elizabeth would have felt if she knew she was playing her own cousin."[3]

Montgomery made many appearances on the game show Password. Allen Ludden, the show's longtime host, called her the "Queen of Password".[12] Montgomery later played a pioneer woman facing hardship in 1820s Ohio in the miniseries The Awakening Land (1978), for which she earned her ninth Emmy nomination.

In A Killing Affair (1977), Montgomery played the role of a police detective who has an affair with her married partner, played by O. J. Simpson. In the television movie Amos (1985), she played a rare villainous role, as a vicious nurse who abuses her wards in a home for senior citizens. The wards are played by, among others, Kirk Douglas and Dorothy McGuire. Montgomery returned to Broadway one last time in 1989 in a production of Love Letters, opposite Robert Foxworth.[6] She played one of her last roles in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series entitled "Showdown", in which she played a barmaid; this was also her final work to be screened, since the episode aired posthumously. Her last television series was the highly rated Edna Buchanan detective series – the second and final film of the series received its first airing on May 9, 1995,[13] only nine days before Montgomery died.

In 1954, Montgomery married her first husband, New York City socialite Frederick Gallatin Cammann;[14] the couple divorced less than a year later. She was married to Academy Award-winning actor Gig Young from 1956 to 1963, and then to director-producer William Asher from 1963 until their divorce in 1973.[14] They had three children: William A. Asher (b. 1964), Robert Asher (b. 1965), and Rebecca Asher (b. 1969). The latter two pregnancies were incorporated into Bewitched as Samantha's pregnancies with Tabitha and Adam Stephens. During the eighth year of the show, Elizabeth fell in love with director Richard Michaels. Their resulting affair led to the end of both their marriages, as well as the end of the series. They moved in together when shooting ended in 1972; the relationship lasted ​21⁄2 years. On January 28, 1993, she married for a fourth time to actor Robert Foxworth, after living with him for nearly 20 years. She remained married to Foxworth until her death.

Throughout the run of Bewitched, many references to Patterson, New York, were made in the series. The Putnam County town was the site of the Montgomery homestead, and it was also where Elizabeth spent her childhood summers. In later years, her mother lived in the family farmhouse on Cushman Road.[15]

Montgomery was personally devoted to liberal political beliefs, and she "lent her name, along with a great deal of time, money, and energy to a wide variety of charitable and political causes".[16] She had progressive political views and was an outspoken champion of women's rights, AIDS activism, and gay rights.[17] Montgomery was also pro-choice throughout her life. She was an ardent critic of the Vietnam War, and in later years, she was an active advocate for AIDS research and outreach to the disabled community.[16] Professionally, she lent her voice as narrator to two political documentaries critical of US foreign policy, Cover Up: Behind the Iran Contra Affair (1988) and the Academy Award-winning The Panama Deception (1992).[18] In June 1992, Montgomery and her former Bewitched co-star Dick Sargent, who had remained good friends, were grand marshals at the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade.[2]

During the last year of her life, Montgomery was a volunteer for the Los Angeles Unit of Learning Ally, a nonprofit organization which records educational books on specially formatted CDs and in downloadable formats for disabled people. In 1994, Montgomery produced several radio and television public-service announcements for the organization's Los Angeles unit. In January 1995, she recorded the 1952 edition of the best-selling book of poetry titled When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne for Learning Ally.

After her death, the Los Angeles unit of Learning Ally dedicated the 1995 Record-A-Thon to Montgomery and secured 21 celebrities to assist in the reading of the book titled Chicken Soup for the Soul, which was also dedicated to her memory.[citation needed]

For many years, Montgomery had struggled with colon cancer, which she believed she had beaten. In the spring of 1995, however, she was told that the cancer had returned.[19] She had ignored the influenza-like symptoms during the filming of Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan, which she finished filming in late March 1995. By the time the cancer was diagnosed, it had spread to her liver and it was too late for medical intervention.[20] With no hope of recovery and unwilling to die in a hospital, she chose to return to the Beverly Hills home that she shared with Foxworth. Early on the morning of May 18, 1995, Montgomery died at home, eight weeks after her diagnosis.[2] She was 62 years old.

On June 18, 1995, a memorial service was held at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills. Herbie Hancock provided the music, and Dominick Dunne spoke about their early days as friends in New York City. Other speakers included her husband, Robert Foxworth, who read sympathy cards from fans; her nurse; her brother; her daughter; and her stepson. Her remains were cremated at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.

Montgomery had a summer home in Patterson, Putnam County, New York. Following her death in 1995, the 794-acre (321 ha) estate was sold to New York State and became Wonder Lake State Park.[21]

On April 19, 1998, an auction and sale of Montgomery's clothing was held by her family to benefit the AIDS Healthcare Foundation of Los Angeles. Erin Murphy, who played Tabitha on the Bewitched television series, modeled the clothing that was auctioned.[22]

Wonder Lake State Park in New York has been expanded and fully opened to the public; as of 2015, it contains over eight miles of walking trails on more than 1000 acres of land.[21]

In 1998, the A&E Television Network produced a documentary for its Biography television series about the life and career of Elizabeth Montgomery. The documentary first aired on A&E on February 15, 1999.

In 1999 the E! cable channel produced a documentary for its E! The True Hollywood Story series entitled "Bewitched: The E! True Hollywood Story." The documentary first aired on E! on August 22, 1999.